Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-08-26
A FOUR LEAF CLOVER.
Written for this paper.l


apple tree that was sending showers Of deli
cate white and pink petals down to the grass
with every breeze, lay pretty Nora Greedy,
fast aleep. The soft and sweet scented leaves
lay scattered all over her brown dress, and
some nestled in her thick dark hair, and one
had fallen upon one of her eyelids and re-
posed there as If pleased with the position.
Morals arms were bare to the elbow, and
were undeniably red and showed signs of toll,
and her face was tanned and brown save
where the healthy young blood showed
through the brown. Her lips were parted.
and between them were glimpses of white
teeth that were the envy of all who saw
them, and all who knew her saw them often,
for she was always laughing and blithe, and,
somehow, the rich color, dark hair and pretty
teeth all seemed to belong to those beautiful
blue eyes that looked so honestly out from
under the heavy black lashes; true Irish eyes,
than which none are more lovely.
Nora was only servant, but she was an
honest and conscientious one and a capable
one, and her rich Irish voice used to troll
forth those creening old ballads that keep
you vibrating between a smile and tear.
The children idolized their good Nora and the
mistress leaned upon her in sorrow and joy !;
the master spoke of her as a great treasure
upon earth and the dumb animals followed
her about with worlds Of love expressed in
their dewy eyes.
Nora was happy, for it was the gift of her
sunny nature to be SO, and she never seemed
sad or out Of spin its, and SO she was regarded
as sort Of perpetual sunshine in the house,
Only one pecularity had Nora and that
often surprised her gentle mistress; Nora was
avaricious. She was a miser if ever there
was one. She received good wages and she
never spent penny that she could possibly
save. She made her own poor clothes at
night when she should have been resting and
she went barefoot whenever the weather rem
dered it possible, and, in short, she was evil
IDENTIFY born a miser. Still Mrs. Satterlee
never said anything to Nora on that subject,
thinking that as Nora earned the money she
had no right to interfere in Morals affairs.
Nora had lived with Mrs. Satterlee for
seven years. She came as a child of Is, Just
after she had landed bewildered stranger in
strange land, and because of her CHEEKY
smile and honest eyes she had been chosen
from among many others, and she went
home with this gentle lady to pretty coun-
try place, where she was always content,
happy and efficient; as little children were born
to the mistress, so were they born to the love
of good, kind Nora whose heart was a we'll
ing spring of warm affection.
Nora was now %, and there were few girls
anywhere who were prettier, heater or better
taught for one in her station, and there were
two young men who thought her absolute
perfection. One of them was a blacksmith
and the other horticuturist, but though
Nora was kind to them, neither received IT,
slightest encouragement. Sometimes Mrs
Satt~rlee wondered whether Nora would ever
marry and have home Of her own, but she
wisely let matters take their course
Nora wrote to her parents and friends in
the old country and received letters from
them in return with a regularity that was a
lesson to many other families, and save that
Nora always sang and laughed more for a
few days after the receipt Of those let ers
none could have ever noticed any effect
But the songs were more plaintive and the
laughter not quite so rich and mellow: still
she said notulng, but "the baby" as they
called her, a child Of 3, always hung around
Morals heels like little dog at such times
until Nora would take her up and rock her to
sleep. This day she had received three let
ters from home, but she seemed a tribe disap-
pointed when she looked them over and missed
one which she appeared to think ought to be
among them, and after dinner was over and
all her work done and the baby asleep on the
wide lounge, Nora went out to the meadow.
through which ran pretty brook and where
the clover was so rich and luxuriant that one
almost longed to be cow to revel in its Juicy
sweetness.
Nora sat down by the side of this brook,
and took her letters from her pocket and read
them. One was from her father one from
cousin and one from her sister, who was a
widow.
Morals eyes filed as she read the same old
story of wrong, oppression and abuse, and
she read OF the coarse brutality of the agents
who had turned out OF doors friends, rela-
tives and playmates; always the same, 10 re-
dress. And now Nora's father wrote that
Dermot Kelly's father and family were all
to be evicted from the land the family had
held for so many generations, and poor Der.
mot had just finished bis studies and was
about to begin the practice of medicine, but
this trouble would set him back for wears.
And then the father thanked Nora for all she
had done for them, and sending untold bless
ings for her as dutiful daughter, and in a
postscript he added that he hoped she would
not be too much discouraged by Dernot's
troubles, nor tire of waiting for him to get
established. "No, that 1 won't, until am
tired of living Poor Dermot! I wish he was
here 1t is hard getting ON in Ireland now,
but, oh, what can l do more than am now
doing2 l send them every cent can spare.
and it seems so little There's no one else
that could do anything if they were here to
help themselves, let alone others All, well |,
We are all born to suffer, and if it is the will
of God we must bear it. This is a sad day
for me-"
And here Nora laid her face down among
the clover and cried, not wildlJ nor bolster
ously, but patiently and YEARLY, and finally,
worn out with emotion, she fell into all un-
easy slumber, which grew sweeter and
sounder, until finally she dreamed
She dreamed she was back in her old home:
that everything was just as it used to he.
She saw her mother in her short gown and
petticoat, trotting about as usual, hunting
for stray bits of dust on her spotless belong
ings; saw her father at work on his bit of
ground; saw her sick sister, with her two
children, and last, and sweetest Of all, she
saw Dermot.
He came walking up the lane, with his
elastic, strong steps, and she felt her heart
beat with delight as he came and took her
hand in his and bent his handsome dark eyes
down to look into hers. And then they